"Creating a world that human and monsters are equal"­ - Interview with Mr. Matsumura, the Producer of Merc Storia
Ujoy is about to release the English version of the currently popular anime mobile RPG Merc Storia. Today let's have Mr. Matsumura talking about his thoughts in designing the game. Q: Is this your first experience of become a game producer? M: Yes. After being the developer of the previous Ensemble Girls, I have been appointed as game producer of a new game which is today's Merc Storia. Q: So is Merc Storia your long-term planning project? M: You could say that. Actually I have been a game fan for long. I played many games of different genres, from which I did take the best part I found to form the genre and style of Merc Storia. Q: Were you planning to make strategic defense game at the start? M: Yes I did but as this is my first time being game producer, I found it would be also interesting to do other genres. However, after having tried puzzle, simulation and parkour games, I found that the initially considered strategic defense is the most playable one. Then the game system was also decided and we started constructing the world of Merc Storia. Q: Are there any features that differ Merc Storia from other defense games? M: The planning of Merc Storia was started in six months after the release of Battle Cats. However, considering there could be other defense games which are released at the time Merc Storia comes out, we wanted to be there "earlier" than those competitors. In-game systems like chat room, random fever and companion support were reconsidered over and over again before the game's release then we add them on one by one. That should be the difference. Q: Since the number of characters in Merc Storia is much larger than that of other defense games, did you make much consideration on this aspect? M: Yes. We always want to have characters with different characteristics. However, this somehow makes it harder to think up a story with some many characters. Q: Please tell us about the world of Merc Storia. M: We have made a world that differs from that of many other games. In Merc Storia, the world is based on the equal relationship between human and monsters. Therefore, we have introduced the Western pastoral element that represent "healing" and "cure", which are the key theme of Merc Storia. Q: It seems battles in Merc Storia are also different ones with this "healing" way of fighting instead of killing. Could you tell us more about this? M: As human and monster are equal in Merc Storia, we tend to allow players to turn those monsters their friends rather than wiping them out violently. The term "healing" here actually means the way of clearing the ferity of monsters and making them live the same way as human. However, there are some saying that they still have to hit monsters in battles. I would answer that by explaining that players must decrease the power of monsters before healing them up. Q: Did you design the protagonist on your own? M: Actually not. The main character was decided by me along with the art director Miss Suzuki and scriptwriter. We finally decided that the main character to be a less-aggressive young boy possessing the power of healing. Q: Is there any possibility of adding more characters in the future? M: We are actually thinking about "sugar daddy" kind of characters. We would predict that this kind wouldn't be as popular as other well liked characters but it may expand the coverage of our audience players. Therefore we will be designing this kind of characters in the future. Q: Anything you would like to tell Southeast Asian players lastly? M: Since the release of Merc Storia in Japan and Taiwan, it has been nominated as a game that takes its worldview seriously. In order to keep our concept and not disappointing our players, we will be keeping focusing on the worldview of the game and hopefully the release of its English version would allow more players to experience the fantastic world of Merc Storia. We will also be making our best efforts to improve the game with "love". Thank you for all your love and support! Merc Storia Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/ujoyms